Twas a REALLY good solar month here.....knocking down 18-20 Kwhrs on many bright days....398 hours for the month. Local power company just posted online this month's reading/bill.....we have a 26 cent credit for the past month ! ( no....they aren't cutting us a check )
Congratulations !!! How many panels, ratings, manufacturer, aprox. cost, inverter rating??? Size of battery bank? Tell us more....
Nice. Alternative Energy has been good in Oregon as well. Revenue meter for 50 turbines was $179,000/day give or take the last few days
Sure.....one-up me with 50 turbines... Tacmotusn: My little system is: 18-175watt Solarworld panels, mounted on two home built single axis powered trackers, 2 MX60's, 24v bank of Absolyte 2v AGM GNP II cells 1200amp/hr, 2-GTFX2524 2500w Outbacks inverters producing 120/240 AC
I've got about 20k in it......hard to pin down exactamundo, as I also moved my electrical service from the house garage out to near the solar, running under ground to the house, and also the shop ( which got rid of a separate meter on the shop that they were charging me commercial rate....which is about double residential ).....and I also build a greenhouse with a small room on one end to house the solar electrical gear... Greenhouse under construction.....you can see the pole mounts for the solar panels on the hill behind. Put up 12 panels initially....then added 4+2 more later to max out the ability of the charge controllers. Actually 4 is TOO many according to Outback's rating, but I'm trying it to see if it works, and if it does, I'll add 2 more to the other array. Rating on the panels ( 10 ) is 1750watts, and the charge controller is only supposed to be able to handle 1600 @24v, but the most I've ever seen was on a clear, cold, snow cover day ( extra reflected light ) and the 10 panel CC hit shade over 1600 for a short bit....most of the time, it never goes over 1500w.....panel ratings are like EPA mileage sticker......mostly bull****. You can see the gear area at the far end.....now walled off with a door. And of course, my wife took over the greenhouse...raised couple hundred tomato plants in there this spring, plus a ton of geraniums.....and now she is clamoring for another greenhouse......it never ends.....
Very, VERY nice. All I can say is I'm very jealous, not just because of the solar, but I love the green house! Thanks for the info.
I'd love a greenhouse. Maybe next year. We do have photovoltaic cells and last months bill was $16.87 with 376 kwh generated. This month up to June 3rd, we've generated 417. The bill, which should appear in a few days will be lower, but I expect a charge of half in delivery services. Last month's delivery services were half the bill.
Your setup looks great, I've been going back and forth between wind or solar. Any reason you went with solar? Thanks
We've been kicking around the idea of solar here in Ohio to our home. My wife thinks wind would also be an option we should explore. We get lots of wind, sometimes too much. As for wind, I'm wondering how much is too much for one of those wind generators? Solar, in the winter, seems like total lacking during some months as we have gone the whole month of January with it never getting above freezing and never seeing the sun at all the whole month. Does daylight alone generate some electric with the panels?
Wild Trapper, what are you running for your solar/wind power to get 20kw ? I have been living off the grid for about 15 years now, and unless you have spent more money than most people know, how are you doing it.
Thats not fair I only have 12 panels and one wind generator. But am going to be adding two more panels next month and a second wind generator in two more months. Oh well, some people have all the luck
Wild Trapper. I have a swea 500 watt wind generator right now, that only puts out in high winds, and will be adding an american built wind generator that puts out lots more power in low winds in about two more months. I will be the official wind testing site for this area for the man who owns one of the biggest wind generator companies in the U.S. Totally designed and built here. Email me for more info if you wish , before you buy. I can also help you out with what you will actually need to go along with the generator. Here is a link to how I put up my wind tower etc. buildingatower Take a look and see what you think of this.
